Astronomers have recently discovered a new planet that,located in the constellation of Centaurus, has three suns. The planet has been named HD131399Ab and it is approximately 350 light years away from Earth. It was discovered using the giant telescope belonging to the European Southern Observatory. The telescope can detect heat signatures from objects many hundreds of light years away because of its high sensitivity to infrared light.
A year on the planet lasts for about 550 Earth years and, depending on the season, the planet experiences either constant daylight or is exposed to three daily sunrises and sunsets. Astronomers are puzzled as to why the unstable gravitational situation hasn’t hurled the planet out into the further reaches of that solar system.
The founder of the planet, Kevin Wagner said that, “Our computer simulations have shown that this type of planet can be stable but if you change things around just a little bit, things can become unstable very quickly. It’s not clear how this planet ended up on its wide orbit in this extreme system, and we can’t say yet what this means for our broader understanding of these types of planetary systems, but it shows that there is more variety out there than many would have deemed possible.”
The scientists have calculated that the planet is a rather young planet at only about 16 million years old. In comparison, science has always stated that the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. The planet has the total mass of about four Jupiter sized planets and the temperatures on the surface of the planet can get over one thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
It is one of the smallest, youngest and coldest of the newly discovered planets.
PHOTO CREDIT: European Southern Observatory